Monthly Archives: April 2016

What’s the right optimism-anxiety ratio for Opening Day after your team just won the World Series? Seriously. This is all really new to me. And I feel like I actually paid less attention to the Royals this past offseason than anytime in the previous two decades. Usually spring training and opening day are exciting. I look forward to them because there’s a chance to move on from disappointment — something the Royals have often over supplied.For years the mantra of Royals fans has been “hope dies hard.” Blogs and Twitter proliferated with overanalyzing Kansas City fans. We were glued to every move, hoping, waiting, believing, that progress, improvement, winning, was just over the horizon. After years of yearning for a winner, years of renewed hope for a better season, and “trusting the process,” I’m forced to face a new season where my team may not improve.This year Spring Training and Opening Day represent the brevity of success and the possibility that the Royals reign could soon be over. It is a possibility I haven’t wanted to face and have prevent myself from facing this offseason. As the season opens, I’m forced to conure up a new kind of hope; a hope I have never needed before. It is no longer a hope for something I have never experience, it’s not a hope for improvement, but a hope for continuation. So, while I’m extremely excited that baseball is back, I’m also extremely anxious. It’s a new feeling for me, one that could be alleviated by a Kansas City dynasty.